This morning (and almost every morning, it seems), the
socialists of America have a new good intentioned
proposal
to pave the way to hell. Today's proposal is to put a hard
limit on credit card interest rates, which will no doubt
contribute to drying up credit for people who need it.

Having
said that, since thinking about nationalizing every
industry is now acceptable in polite society, why don't we
go all the way and have a national credit card?

The US (and every country) already borrows plenty of
money on behalf of its citizens, as [doctorremmulac]
recently lamented. And it already is the primary mover
of
all interest rates.

And finally, who is in a better position to know if you're
able to pay back money than the entity that collects
money out of your every paycheck already?

This national credit card would charge a fixed amount
over
Prime, and be self-limiting in that the payments would
have to flow out of payroll, so no one could borrow more
than what could be sustained on a paycheck (or a
suitable
fraction thereof).

In the meantime, the ample interest payments can do
wonders to the amount of money available for budgetary
needs.